Mom invents app to force teenagers to respond to parents’ calls

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DALLAS — A Texas mom frustrated that her teenage children kept ignoring her calls came up with a solution in the form of an app.

After months of design and working with developers, Ignore No More was born. With a few taps, parents can remotely disable features on their children’s phones, effectively blocking the device from doing anything until the kids respond their parents.

“As a parent, all I have to do is touch the app, tap his name,” Sharon Standifird told KFOR. “To lock Bradley’s device, enter at least a 4-digit unlock code. And now I’m going to press ‘lock Bradley’s phone.’ And if you watch Bradley’s phone, it’s going to go blank. Bradley needs to call me because I’m the person that has the unlock password.”

With one tap, a list of only parent-selected contacts comes up. The child can call, get the password and unlock the phone.

“It takes away texting, it takes away the gaming, it takes away calling their friends. The child will always be able to call 911,” Standifird said.

So how does her son, Bradley, feel about the idea?

“Um, well, I thought it was a good idea, but for other people, not me,” he replied.

“I do have to say that he responds to my texts and my calls a whole lot quicker than he used to,” Standifird said.